This Weekend at the Movies: Who to Trust?

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By Brian Linder

There's still plenty of holiday fare out at theaters this weekend, as well as a few new films to choose from.¿ So if you get to the theater expecting to watch the Lord of the Rings preview in front of Thirteen Days tonight, and it's sold out ¿ take our advice on what to see instead.

Save the Last Dance is the story of a 17-year-old high-school student who sets her sights on being a professional ballerina, but she has to put her plans on hold when her mother is killed in a car accident and she is forced to move to her father's bleak Chicago neighborhood. Intimidated by inner-city life, she turns to the clubs for refuge, where she meets a young black man who shares her love for dancing. As their mutual respect evolves, they soon discover that peer pressure is a more formidable obstacle to romance than differences in race or class.

Spence D. says the main reason to see Save The Last Dance is to check out all the young up-and-coming talent.¿ In STLD the young stars do "what only seasoned pros are capable of: rising above a mediocre, cliched screenplay to actually deliver some solid performances."

In Double Take, a framed financier on the lam in Mexico steals another man's passport for a quick identity change, only to discover that his pseudonym is on more wanted lists than his own. He then teams up with a supposed street hustler, unaware that the man is really a government agent.

Spence D. says of the film, "To his credit, director George Gallo (he helmed Trapped in Paradise) has an excellent handle on pacing. This film moves along at such a clip you almost don't have time to realize how contrived, cliched, and just plain annoying it really is. The ability to disguise a ramshackle slab of mediocre plot as an exciting and intense piece of entertainment, well, that's the mark of a genius director in my book."

Continuing in limited release this weekend is the artsy and ambitious Shadow of the Vampire. In SotV, F. W. Murnau is making Nosferatu on location in Eastern Europe. The director is determined to make this the most authentic movie ever. To this end Murnau has employed a real vampire, Max Schreck. He explains Schreck's weird behavior by saying that he is a fastidious method actor. As payment Schreck has been promised drug addicted beauty Greta ¿ Nosferatu's leading-lady. She is to be his at the end of filming. But it seems that Schreck cannot wait that long to taste the blood of the crew.

According to Spence D. the vampire is the only thing that "sucks" about this film:¿ "Merhige's direction is understatedly beautiful, capturing a lurid, yet serene atmosphere that is at once calming and creepy, yet it is also lush and brimming with arty realism. He has a knack for capturing amazingly picturesque scenes, luring viewers in with their wondrous composition before turning the images on their head, creating unease and a permeating sense of inescapable creepiness."

Also opening this weekend is Antitrust starring Tim Robbins, Ryan Phillippe and Rachel Leigh Cook. Phillippe plays Milo, an idealistic young computer genius with an artist girlfriend and a golden future. He's about to launch a start-up company with his friend Teddy, when he¿s recruited by NURV, a multi-billion dollar corporation, run by his professional hero, Gary Winston. For Milo it's a dream come true, a chance to become a legend in his own right. It's hard to disappoint Teddy, but their offer is too good to refuse. Milo is soon caught up in the exciting challenge of realizing Winston's vision. However, tragedy strikes when Milo begins to doubt the company's source, and realizes that Winston and the company will stop at nothing to win. Milo investigates and the consequences become more and more unnerving, until there is no one left to trust and this twenty-first century David stands alone against Goliath.